On March 16, 2021, Associated Press corrected the record about the Georgia phone call after the recording of it was released:
In a story February 10, 2021, about an investigation into potential attempts to influence the 2020 election in Georgia, The Associated Press, based on information provided by a source, erroneously reported then-President Donald Trump pressed a lead Georgia elections investigator to “find the fraud” and said it would make the investigator a national hero. A recording of the call made public two months later revealed that Trump did not say either and instead said that if the investigator looked into Fulton County the investigator would “find things that are gonna be unbelievable.” Trump also told the investigator: “When the right answer comes out, you’ll be praised.”
ORIGINAL ARTICLE: The Georgia Secretary of State’s office opened an investigation into former President Donald Trump over a phone call he made to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in early January.
During the phone call on Jan. 2, Trump pressured Raffensperger to continue investigating voter fraud in Georgia’s presidential election.
“The ballots are corrupt, and they’re brand new, and they don’t have seals, and there’s a whole thing with the ballots. But the ballots are corrupt. And you are going to find that they are — which is totally illegal — it is more illegal for you than it is for them because, you know, what they did and you’re not reporting it. That’s a criminal, that’s a criminal offense. And you can’t let that happen. That’s a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyer,” Trump said during the hourlong phone call.
“All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state,” Trump continued.
Raffensperger leaked the audio of the phone call to the mainstream media, and now his office is investigating the matter in a “fact-finding and administrative” way, according to Walter Jones, a spokesman for the Secretary of State.
“The Secretary of State’s office investigates complaints it receives,” Jones explained, according to ABC News. “Any further legal efforts will be left to the Attorney General.”
Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump, slammed Georgia election officials and defended Trump’s comments.
“There was nothing improper or untoward about a scheduled call between President Trump, Secretary Raffensperger and lawyers on both sides,” Miller said in a statement. “If Mr. Raffensperger didn’t want to receive calls about the election, he shouldn’t have run for Secretary of State. And the only reason the call became public was because Mr. Raffensperger leaked it in an attempt to score political points.”
